Don't dismiss nuclear power yet: Macfarlane

By Daniel Hurst

The federal Coalition's energy spokesman has restated his support for nuclear power, despite the unfolding crisis in Japan.

Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources Ian Macfarlane today called for Australia to have an honest “science-based” debate about whether the country should embrace nuclear power.

Mr Macfarlane, speaking at an event in Brisbane, said lessons would be learnt from the situation in Japan, where authorities today reported a second explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.

Japan has been battling to control two overheating reactors at the ageing plant after the cooling systems were knocked out by Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami.

“In the case of nuclear energy, there will be a lot of lessons learned I suspect out of what's happened in Japan as a result particularly of the tsunami which probably had a bigger impact [than the earthquake],” Mr Macfarlane told a Queensland Media Club luncheon.

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“But the fact remains that in the absence of nuclear someone has got to come up with something that generates zero-emissions baseload [power].”

Mr Macfarlane questioned the prospects of building a hydroelectric power station in Australia and said shares in geothermal energy company Geodynamics had fallen sharply.

He said other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had adopted nuclear power sources.

“My views on nuclear power are still that it is the only technology that can deliver zero emissions baseload in the absence of hydroelectricity, and the technology that the rest of the world, in fact every other country in the OECD has embraced, and pending the outcome of what happens in Japan it's still going to have the lowest fatality rate per terawatt hour of electricity of any energy source in the world,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“And for how long we can continue hoping to reduce our emissions long term ... without a reliable baseload technology, I'm not sure.”

But Mr Macfarlane said the debate needed to take place without a fear campaign.

“We won't have that debate in Australia and the Coalition won't engage in that debate until the Labor Party approaches that debate honestly, and their record in 2007 was pretty damn dishonest. They ran around telling everyone there'd be a reactor in their backyard,” he said.

“I'll wait for the debate, but I only ask when we have that debate that it's science-based and based on facts.”

The government officially opposes the use of nuclear power in Australia, with frontbencher Peter Garrett telling Fairfax Media in 2007 the energy source would “never ever” be introduced under Labor.

However, the position appears to be shifting. Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said last month nuclear power was “proven clean-energy technology” and the cost of generating electricity from it was getting cheaper.

“There will be a very serious debate in Australia at some time in the future as to how we reduce our CO2 emissions whilst maintaining a reliable supply of energy at the cheapest possible cost,” Mr Ferguson said last month.

The Japanese crisis has intensified global debate about nuclear power.

Greens leader Bob Brown said it was an unsafe way to generate power and the Australian Conservation Foundation said the fears of a meltdown in Japan sent a “clear warning” about the risks of nuclear energy.

However, the head of the Howard government's review of nuclear energy, Ziggy Switkowski, said nuclear power was critical to the Australia's low-carbon future.

"It's already clear that the opponents are pointing to this as a reason for Australia not to consider nuclear energy," said Dr Switkowski, who until recently headed the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

“The debate will be confused by that development. The progress we have made over the past several years will pause for a while.”

Labor heavyweights – including Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, Mr Ferguson and former prime minister Bob Hawke – support a debate on the issue at the party's national conference in December.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told reporters today he did not have any policy for nuclear power in Australia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the Japanese nuclear crisis as “a turning point for the world”.

During an urgent meeting at the weekend, ordered inspections of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants as 40,000 protesters formed a 45-kilometre human chain from one plant to Stuttgart in opposition to her plan to extend the plants' working life.

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She said the country could not carry on as usual given that an explosion at a nuclear plant happened despite Japan's high safety standards.